Teens burned by flaming liquor at party

FREDONIA, N.Y. (WIVB) - Police say things got out of control at a Fredonia party involving flaming alcoholic beverages. A young Hamburg woman is severely burned as a result.

On the internet, you can find all kinds of video of people lighting up hard liquor, and often times getting burned. On Saturday afternoon, it went terribly wrong at a party inside this house right across the street from SUNY Fredonia.

Sgt. Phil Maslak of the Fredonia Police Department said, "He was apparently filling a beer can full of the liquor and lighting it on fire and added some more of the Devil's vodka to it, and it actually went from the can to the bottle, caught the bottle on fire and he shook it, so to speak, and it actually caught the couch on fire and two victims on the couch."

18-year-old Taylor Meckley of Hamburg suffered second and third degree burns over almost half of her body. She is still in the burn treatment unit at ECMC in stable condition. Her friend, 18-year-old Patrick Bettder, suffered more minor burns. He is a SUNY Fredonia student, but the one who police say caused the fire is not. 20-year-old Joshua Benton from the Albany area was visiting and will face charges.

SUNY Fredonia student Liz Milton said, "That's so stupid. People around Fredonia get so stupid during FredFest and it's horrible. She's so young."

FredFest is the annual end of the school year festival. This weekend, 60 people were arrested.

When asked if the university was going to have to reconsider FredFest, Michael Barone, SUNY Fredonia spokesman, said, "Certainly not, because from our perspective, FredFest is a six-hour long alcohol-free music festival. In any kind of environment like that you're always gonna have a select few that make poor decisions that tend to ruin it for the rest."

The Chautauqua County District Attorney is expected to decide on Tuesday what to charge Joshua Benton with. University officials are deciding how to deal with the SUNY Fredonia students who threw the party in their home.